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LABOUR leadership candidate Edwina Hart has unveiled a slate of Assembly backers who are supporting her campaign for First Minister. Once more, she has decided to move her campaign forward using online media, signalling the importance of the medium during this campaign. The short video above sees eight Assembly Members offer her their support, two of whom are Ministers in the Welsh Assembly Government. The video is one of the most personal endorsements put out by any campaign team and demonstrates the extent to which the Health Minister’s personality will be at the core of her campaign.

The list is headed by Finance Minister Andrew Davies (Swansea West) – her campaign manager. She is also supported by Janice Gregory (Ogmore), Christine Chapman (Cynon Valley), Val Lloyd (Swansea East), Sandy Mewies (Delyn), Jeff Cuthbert (Caerphilly), Rosemary Butler (Newport West), and Gwenda Thomas (Neath). Each offers a personal view of why Edwina Hart, the Gower AM, should succeed.

If this remains her level of support within the Assembly group, then the the Hart campaign has nine Assembly Members out of the 26 possibles. This compares with Huw Lewis (Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney) who, as we reported on Friday, has declared six AMs – himself, Ann Jones (Vale of Clwyd), Lynne Neagle (Torfaen), Karen Sinclair (Clwyd South), Joyce Watson (Mid & West Wales) and Irene James (Islwyn).

The third candidate, Carwyn Jones (Bridgend), is expected to launch his campaign later today and, as we reported overnight, already has the public backing of five AMs – himself, Leighton Andrews (Rhondda), Lorraine Barrett (Cardiff South and Penarth), Lesley Griffiths (Wrexham) and Jane Davidson (Pontypridd).

This leaves just six AMs who have yet to make their preferences known, and of these Rhodri Morgan has indicated he will not back any candidate. For the record, these undeclared AMs are Brian Gibbons (Aberavon), Jane Hutt (Vale of Glamorgan), Alun Davies (Mid & West Wales), Carl Sergeant (Alyn and Deeside), and John Griffiths (Newport East). Some of these will presumably be in the Carwyn camp. But for Carwyn to overtake Edwina amongst AMs he would need to have secured the backing of all of them, making it a 10-9-6 split overall. Expect the remaining five to make their intentions known pretty rapidly – if only to stop the canvassers coming round…

The list of Assembly Member backers is, however, more than just a collection of names. Each candidate needs six backers to stand and the weighting given to AM supporters within Labour’s electoral college means each one carries around 0.59% of the total vote. (Please correct us if our maths is wrong.) Thus Mrs Hart’s block of nine is worth over 5% of the total electoral college, and the “undecided five” are worth around 3%. In a three way contest that is being predicted to be very close, every AM counts.